picture: Still from ‘Mica’ by Ismaël Ferroukhi

The first edition of First Cut Lab to take place at Karlovy Vary IFF will see rough cuts workshopped of 2 Central and Eastern European projects and, for the first time in FCL history, a project from the Arab world. Organised together with Karlovy Vary IFF as part of the Eastern Promises Industry Days, FCL Karlovy Vary will take place from 2nd to 6th of July 2019. Out of a number of strong applicants we are proud to announce the 3 films that are selected for this first edition:

AFTER THE WINTER by Ivan Bakrač (Montenegro/Serbia) debut; prod.: Ivan Djurovic

JANUARY by Andrey Paounov (Bulgaria/Portugal); prod.: Vanya Rainova

MICA by Ismaël Ferroukhi (Morocco/France); prod.: Lamia Chraibi.

‘After the Winter’ by Ivan Bakrac

Each film will receive in depth feedback on their rough cut by a panel of carefully selected advisers. The first advisers are already confirmed and they are:

– Konstantinos Kontovrakis (Greece), producer at Heretic;

– John Nein (USA), senior programmer at Sundance Film Festival;

– Anna Ciennik (France/Poland), Program Manager at Less Is More (LIM) & Industry Manager at Les Arcs Film Festival.

In addition to the workshop, two films previously workshopped in First Cut Lab will premiere in the prestigious East of the West Competition of Karlovy Vary IFF:

Martti Helde’s SCANDINAVIAN SILENCE (Estonia) which participated in FCL Trieste 2017 and Antonio Lukich’s MY THOUGHTS ARE SILENT (Ukraine) that participated earlier this year in our first workshop in Ukraine. Many congrats to all selected teams!!

‘January’ by Andrey Paounov